Friday, April 22, 2016

I probably do not need to tell you, but America’s children
are in trouble. Perhaps not all of them are in the same kind of trouble, but
most of them seem clearly to be troubled.

Parents bring their children to Dr. Leonard Sax because they
are worried. In particular, they are worried about their sons. Their adolescent
boys are layabouts. They play video games and sports. They are detached
from school and from schoolwork. Dr. Sax does not quite mention it, but they are
probably also absorbed in the world of internet porn.

Dr. Sax describes one patient:

He’s
not working hard at school and his grades are sliding. At 16, he spends most of
his free time playing video games like Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty, or
surfing the Web for pictures of girls. He’s happy as a clam.

Dumb as a post and happy as a clam. Obviously, this does not
signal great parenting or a culture that knows how to bring up boys. It shows
that the culture has basically failed its sons.

Suffering in school systems controlled by radical feminists and
Common Core advocates boys have lost interest in their schoolwork. They
understand that the game is rigged against them, that they can only do well if
they act more like girls. If they are being punished for acting like boys, they
retreat into a world where they can compete like boys. And that means video
games.

And, why should they work hard at school in order to grow up
to become heads of their families? Why should they try to learn how to support
their wives when said wives do not want to be supported? Boys have learned that
the role of breadwinner is a relic and that being male, especially a white
male, confers an unearned privilege that needs to be expiated. Girls can take
care of themselves, so boys have no reason to want to become strong men who can
care for women and children. They might just as well play video games.

They might be happy as clams now, but eventually this
silliness will catch up with them. The mental health of American men,
millennial and later generations, is not very good. And it’s beyond what a pill
can fix.

As for those hyperachieving girls, the situation might look
better. All those incipient feminists are doing their best Sheryl Sandberg
imitations, but beneath the surface, all is not well.

Dr. Sax explains:

Both
parents are actually quite proud of their 14-year-old daughter, who is a
straight-A student, an athlete and has many friends. But when I met with her,
she told me that she isn’t sleeping well. She wakes up in the middle of the
night, feeling remorseful about having eaten a whole slice of pizza for dinner.
She often has shortness of breath. Recently she has begun cutting herself with
razor blades, on her upper inner thigh where her parents won’t see. She hasn’t
told her parents any of this. On the surface, she is the golden girl. Inside,
she is falling apart.

Dr. Sax is going to blame it all on social media, because,
when you are in doubt, you blame everything on social media:

Imagine
another girl sitting in her bedroom, alone. She’s scrolling through other
girls’ Instagram and Snapchat feeds. She sees Sonya showing off her new bikini;
Sonya looks awesome. She sees Madison at a party, having a blast. She sees
Vanessa with her adorable new puppy. And she thinks: I’m just sitting here in my
bedroom, not doing anything. My life sucks.

Dr. Sax points to the fact that the girls who are alone in
their bedrooms with social media are suffering because they do not have a home
life. They do not have dinner together, they rarely get together to converse with
other family members.

Blaming social media allows him to avoid a dozen more
salient questions. I cannot guarantee you that they pertain in one or all
situations, but they are the questions that we ought to be asking.

We ought to be asking about the role models these girls have
at home. Are their parents married or divorced or neither? What kinds of role
models are these parents? Does Dad work or does he stay home playing video
games and vacuuming the carpet? Does Mom work or stay at home? Does she cook
dinner or does she fight with her husband about household chores? How much time
do these mothers spend with their daughters, doing girl things? A lot or a
little or none? Does social media fill in the gap left empty by absent parents?

Do these mothers teach their daughters to delight in becoming
women? Do they like being women or do they consider it an impediment to career
advancement? Do they rejoice in their femininity or are they acting like boys
in lipstick?

These are largely inconvenient questions. Dr. Saz does not ask them. These parents
are paying him, so it’s best to blame social media.

Are today’s adolescent girls excited to become women or do
they dread it? How do they feel about the fact that they might have to learn to
give blow jobs to boys they don’t know, lest they not be considered popular? Do
they believe that any boy will ever love them? Do they think that becoming
women will consign them to misery and oppression? Do they like being feminine? Do
they enjoy playing with cosmetics and fashion? Or have they been told, over and
over again, that they are strong, that they can do anything they want to do,
that they can compete against boys at any activity, that they are perfectly
self-contained and self-sufficient?

Has the media taught them that they should take up arms
against sexism and engage in constant complaining about how oppressed she is?
Does today's girl want to grow up to become like Hillary Clinton?

If a girl is told that she must grow up to become
independent and autonomous, she might well hear that no man will ever love her,
ever want her or ever desire her for anything other than sex? Is it not possible
that she has become so male identified, so competitive, that she has so
thoroughly gotten in touch with her manly side that she is afraid that boys will
not know she is a female? Does she believe that she can only persuade them that
she is a girl by sexting images of her private parts? How does she react to the
fact that our pornified culture has exposed the feminine sex to more people and
that feminism has made the national conversation about female reproductive
anatomy a national obsession? Does the constant exposure of the feminine sex
make her feel exposed? Does it make her feel that she has lost control over her
own sexuality?

Does she want to grow up to become a wife and a mother or
does she want to become a courtesan or a mistress? These are not the same; you
cannot do both. Considering the cultural disapproval or the role of housewife,
is today’s American girl in pain over the fact that the best that she can do is
to be a courtesan, a vamp with a career.

Does she learn that her developing body is an impediment to
her worldly success, that her femininity is a curse that prevents her from
leaning in and from asserting herself like the boys do? Will she learn that her
femininity, when it attracts attention, will attract the wrong kind of
attention and subject her to rape culture and sexual abuse?

We are horrified at the notion that these girls sit in their
rooms cutting themselves, but how many of their mothers, uncomfortable with
their own aging, sit around talking about going under the knife, the better to
enhance their appearance?

Now, Dr. Sax has nothing to say about any of these questions
or issues. But, how is a psychiatrist going to help his patients when he
systematically ignores all of the cultural and social factors that are making
America’s children dysfunctional and unhappy.

As a culture we have broken down the differences between the
sexes. We believe that sexual identity is merely a social construct. Now, our
children are paying the price.

When I was a young boy, gradually growing into a young man, I began to notice how young girls, then going women, bullied and treated each other. Being young and unaware of the ways of the world I just assumed they would grow out of it because as growing young men we found ways to work with each other to work in teams, et al.As I joined the military, to beat the draft, it was demonstrated to me how much I was capable of accomplishing and how being part of a group made every task better. Along the way I meet and enjoyed a number of women. I still noticed that now they were far more serious in how they bullied and treated other women. This was, I guessed, a part of who women were as human beings and as such, like most men, I stayed as far away as possible from being involved. I never much enjoyed putting other people down because I had my own problems to work on.Some where in there women started to be part of my work life. Hey what do I care as long as they became part of the group. Women feel a need to demonstrate their patriotism too. As a young kid I noticed when we boys wanted to go play baseball there was always a young girl who wanted to play and after much hemming and hawing we let her play. Well you know the first thing she did was want to change the rules so we ignored her when we could.I related this because the same thing happened in the military with lowered standards, et al and a growing desire on some women to try and bully through threatening sexual harassment if we NCOs expected them to do the job. Little did we young men realize that those same women were now going to attempt to bully us in the same manner as they treated each other. Worse yet everything became about them as demonstrated by the "What do women want?" mantra.Continued

ContinuedEven to the point that many of these women would vote for someone who had the same genitalia as themselves no matter how crooked or corrupt that person may be. It would seem that principles, honesty, et al takes a back seat to sexual politics. Many men did/do what they have always done, tried to stay out of it, but even here many women need men so badly to blame that they will follow them no matter where they go to get away from women. No all male clubs for you, but we will have our own where men are not allowed to go.Now this might sound a lot like women whine, but I believe it demonstrates, as Marsh states, "Boys/men play video games b/c it's the only place that isn't ruined by feminism." Feminism is only the perpetuation of the bullying and maltreatment that young women learned when they were just starting out in life and still do to each other now expanded to a larger environment to include men which covers the inadequacies and insecurities that exists in many women. Misery loves company is feminism writ large and you will damn well be part of it.

Dennis, Hillary will lose b/c most women have at least a sense that feminism has gone too far. And nearly all men think it has too. Hillary will get all the angry women vote and the beta males. But, Trump will get all the alphas and the women who love alphas.

Women are the weaker sex, not just b/c we are physically weaker, but emotionally and even possible morally. Those of us, who have had loving, supportive fathers have a definite advantage over women who didn't. We need strong fathers and strong husbands to lovingly guide us. Feminism was a lie.

Just celebrated our 53rd anniversary. I have been married so long that I know of no other existence. Married to a strong woman who had to be to follow me every where we have been. She was the one who handled much of the challenges we faced because I was TDY or traveling much of the time.If there is anything that feminism has done damage to it is fatherhood and all that entails. It is hard to be a father if one has no one to emulate. Girls truly need fathers especially after about the age of 10. It gives them an idea of what a man should be like. The same is true with boys at about the same age in truly needing their mother to have an idea of what a woman should be. Fathers and mothers are extremely important. That lack is one of the reasons we have so many dysfunctional people. Confusion leads to chaos.Feminist bullying has engendered large numbers of unhappy women. I am truly sorry I thought, in earlier years that it was a good idea. The good little liberal I used to be.Do well in life Marsh.

I sometimes wonder if the very same girls who mere the "mean girls" we all knew when young who have just continued being the "mean girls" of today's feminism. It would seem to me that these "mean girls" all came from upper middle and upper class environments. It does seem that the "mean girl" feminist has the same classist makeup. I wonder if it comes from a princess princess privilege that they came to expect and still believe they deserve now? "What do women want?" really meant was "What do elite women want?" because the rest of you are in serve to us. No Cinderella is going to happen here.As I look at life now and remember it then I do not remember middle and lower class girls being a part of this bullying. In fact they were and still are the ones subjected to "mean girls" actions. Now men who don't meet the requisites of a class are also subjected to this disrespect and "mean girl" elitism. One only needs to look at Hillary to notice a person who seems to believe she is now a queen and above the laws that would apply to we commoners. Shaming is meant to keep us in lace and to not question the logic of our betters as exhibited by the left and feminism.I would posit that one of the reasons one sees all this disrespect and shaming for people who live in "fly over" country, those who do not belong in the establishment, et al has its foundation in the "mean girl" attitude towards others. For it does seem that the "mean girls" have always been enamored with class, royalty and the perquisites that come with being the elite in a country where we are all supposed to be equal under the law an the Constitution.